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This book investigates the interplay of the recent transformation of working life and the growing appeal of political right-wing populism and extremism in Europe. It explores the individual and collective reactions and the strategies people develop in order to come to terms with socio-economic change. It raises the question of whether, and to what extent, changes in the employment system and in working life contribute to making people receptive to xenophobia, nationalism and racism. Based on an eight country study using both quantitative and qualitative research methods, this volume makes a significant contribution to the deeper understanding of the subjective reactions to socio-economic change and its political reverberations.
W.G. Sebald's books are sui generis hybrids of fiction, travelogue, autobiography and historical expos», in which a narrator (both Sebald and not Sebald) comments on the quick blossoming of natural wonders and the long deaths that come of human atrocities. All his narratives are punctuated with images--murky photographs, architectural plans, engravings, paintings, newspaper clippings--inserted into the prose without captions and often without obvious connection to the words that surround them. This important volume includes a rare 1993 interview called "'But the written word is not a true document': A Conversation with W.G. Sebald about Photography and Literature," in which Sebald talks exc...
In recent years, Romanians have become the second largest migrant group in Western Europe. Following the liberalization of border controls and the massive economic and political changes in Eastern Europe, human mobility has increased and is becoming a permanent feature of post-Cold War Europe. The arrival of many Eastern Europeans, with Romanians being the largest migrant group, has produced public concerns on immigration in some West European countries. This is particularly the case in Italy, where Romanian irregular migrants are often stigmatized as poor troublemakers by authorities and the mass media. This book challenges such commonly-held assumptions that artificially divide migrants in...
Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems is one of the most ambitious attempts to create a coherent account of global modernity. Primarily interested in the fundamental structures of modern society, however, Luhmann himself paid relatively little attention to regional variations. The aim of this book is to seek out modernity in one particular location: The United States of America. Gathering essays from a group of cultural and literary scholars, sociologists, and philosophers, Addressing Modernity reassesses the claims of American exceptionalism by setting them in the context of Luhmann’s conception of modernity, and explores how social systems theory can generate new perspectives on what has often been described as the first thoroughly modern nation. As a study of American society and culture from a Luhmannian vantage point, the book is of interest to scholars from both American Studies and social systems theory in general.
This book argues that modern technology has radically and irretrievably altered our sense of identity and hence our social, political, and legal life. In traditional societies, relationships and identities were strongly vertical: there was a clear line of authority from top to bottom, and identity was fixed by one's birth or social position. But in modern society, identity and authority have become much more horizontal: people feel freer to choose who they are and to form relationships on a plane of equality. The author examines how modern life centers on human identity seen in terms of race, gender, ethnicity, and religion, and how this new way of defining oneself affects politics, social s...
"This first sustained exploration of Sebald's engagement with Jews and Jewishness challenges his position as German "speaker of the Holocaust" by revealing that, despite his intentions, his figural treatment of Jewish characters perpetuates harmful stereotypes. German writer W.G. Sebald (1944-2001) has been hailed, together with Primo Levi, as the "prime speaker of the Holocaust," a breathtaking claim that casts Levi, survivor of Auschwitz, and Sebald, progeny of the German perpetrator generation, in an unlikely pairing that confirms Sebald's status as the preeminent German writer concerned with the Jewish experience in recent history. Recipient of a Koret Jewish Book Award for his "extraord...
The novelist, poet, and essayist W. G. Sebald (1944 – 2001) was perhaps the most original German writer of the last decade of the 20th century (“Die Ausgewanderten”, “Austerlitz”, “Luftkrieg und Literatur”). His writing is marked by a unique ‘hybridity’ that combines characteristics of travelogue, cultural criticism, crime story, historical essay, and dream diary, among other genres. He employs layers of literary and motion picture allusions that contribute to a sometimes enigmatic, sometimes intimately familiar mood; his dominant mode is melancholy. The contributions of this anthology examine W. G. Sebald as narrator and pensive observer of history. The book includes a previously unpublished interview with Sebald from 1998.
Factual Fictions: Narrative Truth and the Contemporary American Documentary Novel focuses on contemporary American documentary narratives, specifically the documentary novel, as it re-emerged in the 1960s and later developed into various other forms. The book explores the connections between the documentary novel and the concurrent rise of New Journalism (a.k.a. “literary journalism”) in the United States, situating the two genres in the cultural context of the tumultuous 1960s and an emerging postmodern ethos. Flis makes a comprehensive analysis of texts by Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, John Berendt, and Don DeLillo, while tackling discussions on various theoretical complexities with as...
Frontcover -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1: Heroes and Martyrs -- 2: Chroniclers and Interpreters -- 3: Critics and Renegades -- 4: Tale Spinners and Poets -- 5: Women of the Revolution -- 6: "1968" and the Media -- 7: "1968" and the Arts -- 8: Zaungäste -- 9: Not Dark Yet: The 68ers at Seventy -- 10: Romantic Relapse or Modern Myth? -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index